ABSTRACT

As the sun cracks tbi eastern horizon on any Las Vegas morning, a line of cars backs up at the freeway exit on Eastern Avenue, the turn-off to the hottest development in 2000, Del Webb's Anthem, Before 7 A.M., i line reaches back from exit ramp onto the freeway. Nearly every car is filled with Latinos headed for construction work. Young men mostly, they ride four or five in a truck or car., Hevada license plates predominate, but as always California plates run a close second and Mexico is not far behind. The vehicles are old, often beat-up, with the evidence of previous owners remaining in tattered bumper stickers. I saw one filled with five young Latinos sipping coffee, steam rising on a cold morning; the bumper sticker on the back advocated a vote for one of the California anti-immigration propositions of recent years. Sometimes the new owners will personalize their car: "I ♥ Jalisco" is a favorite, with stickers advertising the Jalisco Restaurant or Lindo Michoacan, for many the best Mexican restaurant in town, hailing their Mexican regional points of origin. Once in a while, a new pickup, brightly colored and sometimes cut to a low rider, will display the driver's sense of accomplishment, but most workers travel in groups, in cars left over from the 1970s and 1980s, big Impalas, beat-up K cars, and the ever-present imported pickup trucks.